NEET UG 2024 is an important test for Indian medical aspirants. However, NEET-UG 2024 was a controversial exam this year with leaked question papers and awarding of “grace marks” among other systemic issues which led to numerous legal battles over a period of about two months. and plea to re-conduct NEET-UG 2024 exam. Supreme Court found no irregularities in the conduct of NEET and in 2024 take place examination. While it conceded that exam papers from Hazaribagh and Patna were leaked, the court maintained that there was no compromise on the outcome.
While some states expressed their dissatisfaction with the exams amidst all these, federal education minister welcomed the verdict of the Supreme Court. A day after announcement by Supreme Court, Nite, West Bengal Assembly passed a resolution for abolishing NEET and introducing new state-level entrance examinations for medical students. A similar move has been made by Karnataka cabinet recently when it approved a resolution against NEET. In addition, last month Tamil Nadu Assembly passed a resolution requesting Government of Indian to exempt Tamil Nadu from taking part in NEET.
Notably Bahujan Samaj Party chief Mayawati demanded dissolution of NEET and restoration of “old system” of admitting students into medicine. She paid visit to X (formerly Twitter) today and wrote many tweets.
“Unfortunately over India’s streets, Parliament or even in Supreme Court one cannot fail to listen to discussions about the mess-ups within various centers set up across Indian where national eligibility cum entrance test (NEET) undergraduate medical examination is conducted.” “Irrespective of how it turns out, this will always be haunting pain as well as mental torture thousands candidates have undergone as well as their families.”
More importantly she added that “The seriousness of this problem is further compounded by failure on part of Central government to assure State that such an important medical examination is being done properly.” So, why not abandon the centralized medical NEET UG-PG examination and revert back to old system as most state governments demand Cotton?
NEET UG: Why was it abolished?
In 2021, Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) came to power in Tamil Nadu and formed a panel to study the impact of the NEET-based admission process. The panel is headed by retired Madras High Court judge A K Rajan. The commission’s report based on extensive data analysis and feedback from students, parents and the public has been shared with state governments showing how NEET is allegedly antipoor and anti-social justice. On June 10th, 2024 Justice Rajan recommended that immediate steps be taken by the Tamil Nadu government through legal or/and legislative means in order to eliminate NEET. The panel also suggested that high school examination scores should be regarded as sole criteria for admission into first year medical courses.
“The State Government may take immediate steps to remove NEET as an eligibility criterion for admission to medical programmes, in accordance with prescribed legal and/or legislative procedures,” said the committee.
The reason: The recent suicides of medical aspirants studying and preparing for ‘NEET’ were the consequence of repeated. In this context, DMK advocated the abolition of NEET examination as it claimed that this was the only solution to prevent suicide among students. Meanwhile, in May 2024, the party stated that about 26 lives had been lost due to NEET in Tamil Nadu. It has also been alleged by the party that 119 students who were seeking clearing NEET coaching took their own lives over an eight-year period.
Furthermore, these student suicides have been linked by the party with NEET cheating and irregularities seen in states like Gujarat, Rajasthan and Maharashtra. Additionally, DMK asked whether around 24 lakh students felt betrayed.
Abolition of NEET UG: West Bengal’s move
The National Testing Agency (NTA) was accused of untrustworthiness by passing a resolution through West Bengal Assembly on Wednesday, July 24. The Indian state will hold its own entrance exam for medical students instead. Parami News reported that this resolution was proposed by state parliamentary affairs minister Sovandeb Chattopadhya who criticized NTA’s inefficiency to conduct fair and transparent entrance examinations for students.
The reason: As per reports, a resolution passed by the Assembly criticized NTA for not conducting fair and unbiased examinations and urged the state government to hold joint entrance examinations across the state in larger public interest. West Bengal opposed NEET because it believed NTA did not conduct a just review process.
Supporting this resolution Bratya Basu, education minister said “I heard from media question papers were leaked for Rs30-40 lakh. Future of country’s children amounting to 2.4m people is being destroyed… Leave this test to us and we can do it transparently,” according to Parami News reports.
Abolition of NEET: Karnataka verdict
Similarly, on Monday the Karnataka cabinet approved a resolution canceling the NEET exam in the state and replacing it with a new entrance test for UG and PG students. This decision comes on the back of growing concerns about NEET exams. Last week, Deputy Minister DK Shivakumar called on the Center to scrap NEET and allow states to hold their own entrance exams.
“Irregularities in NEET exams are serious. It is a matter of future for lakhs of students. The Center must scrap NEET and allow states to conduct their own entrance tests. Indian students across the country are being tested,” Shivakumar said, according to Parami News. You can take exams conducted by each state.
The reason: According to sources mentioned above, if this examination is challenged in court, it will disenfranchise those from other states who have appeared for it at their respective homes too when it was held only in one state. Equally, there are also worries among them that this may interfere with the sanctity of NEET exam as well.“Students from Karnataka are played out unfairly…,” emphasized Shivakumar (Parami News). There should be an enquiry by government into irregularities during NEET’s administration.
Are more states going to get involved?
NEET UG has recently hit a downturn, so here is the pertinent question: are other states going to join Karnataka, West Bengal and Tamil Nadu? Only these three states have taken action in relation to NEET until now. Other states have not commented on it yet. However, if irregularities in NEET exams continue, we may see more states join the movement.
Can medical aspirants also follow this pattern like the national engineering entrance test?
There are already several state level examinations for engineering. In addition to Joint Entrance Examination (JEE) conducted across Indian, there are many other national entrance examinations. Here are a few of them:
COMEDK: COMEDK UGET exam is held nationwide by Consortium of Medical Engineering and Dental Colleges of Karnataka for admissions into nearly 190 private engineering colleges in Karnataka.
WBJEE: West Bengal Joint Entrance Examination is organized by West Bengal Joint Entrance Examination Board for admission in West Bengal.
MHT CET: Maharashtra Common Entrance Test (MHT CET) is a state level examination held every year in Maharashtra by Maharashtra Common Entrance Test Panel conduct for getting admission into various colleges offering courses such as Engineering and Pharmacy.
The above examples illustrate that it may be possible for certain states to administer medical entrance tests at both state and national levels. However, this possibility cannot be definitely commented upon right now.
